The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-12
A HORROR OF HORRORS
Cars Crash Through a BIaz-
ing Bridge.
OVER HUNDRED KILLED
Scores Injured Be-
yOnd Recovery.
BRAVE MEN FIGHT FIRE.
Hands Used as ShOvelS For -Four
Weary Hours.
ALL ON AN EXCURSION
The Train Bound From Illinois
to Niagara Falls.
SHRIEKS AT MIDNIGHT.
Heartrending Scenes Lit Up
by the Flames,
ALL ON AN EXCURSION
The Train Bound From Illinois
to Niagara Falls.
SHRIEKS AT MIDNIGHT
Heartrending Scenes Lit Up
by the Flames,

CHICAGO, Aug. ia Chicago Times
special from Forest, H., says:
All the railway horrors in the history of
this country were surpassed three miles
east of Chatsworth last night when an
excursion train on the Toledo, Peoria and
Western railroad dropped through a burn
ing bridge and over 100 hundred people
were killed and four times that number
more or less badly injured. The train was
composed of six sleeping cars, six day
coaches, one chair car and three baggage
cars. 1t was carrying 960 passengers, all
excursionists, and was bound for Niagara
Falls. The train had been made up all
along the line of the Toledo, Peoria and
Western road, and the excursionists hailed
from various points in Central Illinois, the
bnlk of them, however, coming from Pc
oria Some OF the passengers came from
Canton, Ell PasO, Washington, and in fact all
the stations along the line some from as far
West as Burlington and Keokuk, la. A
special and cheap rate had been made for
the excursion, and all sorts of people took
advantage of it. When the train drew out
of Peoria at o'clock last evening il was
loaded to It's utmost capacity. Every berth
in the six sleepers was taken and the day
cars carried sixty people each The train
was SO heavy that two engines were hitched
to it, and when it passed this place it was an
hour and half behind time
RUSHING ON TO A BURNING BRIDGE.
Chatsworth, the next station east of here,
Is six miles off and the run was made in
seven minutes. The terrible momentum of
those fifteen coaches and two engines shoot
ing through space at the rate of a mile a
minute can be understood. No stop was
made at Chatsworth, and on and on the
heavy train with its living freight sped
through the darkness of the night Three
miles east Of Chatsworth is a little slough
and where the railroad crosses a dry run
about ten feet deep and fifteen feet wide
over this was stretched an ordinary wooden
treStle bridge, and as the excursion train
came laundering down on it, what was
the horror of the engineer on the front en-
glne when he saw that this bridge was burn
ing, Right up before his eyes leaped the
bright flames, and the next instant he was
among them. There was no chance to stop
had there been warning it would have
taken half a mile to stop, and the
traln was within 100 yards of the
rel tongued messenger of death
tefore they flashed their fatal signals into
The engineers face. But he passed over in
safety, the first engine keeping the rails
As 1t went over the bridge fell beneath it
and it could only have been the terrific
speed OF the train that saved the lives of the
engineer and his fireman.
INTO THE JAWS or DEATH.
The next engine went down and in
stantly the deed Of death was done. Car
crashed into car, coaches piled one on top of
another, and in q twinkling of an eye
nearly 100 people found instant death and
~ more were so hurt that they could not
hve. As for the wounded they were every
where Only the sleeping coaches escaped
ana as the startled and half dressed passen-
gers came tumbling ont Of them they found
such a scene of death as is rarely wit
messed and such work to do that it seemed
Us " human hands were utterly incapable.
>, 1t lacked but five minutes of midnight.
DOWN in the ditch lay second engineer Nc
Sllntock dead and fireman Applegate badly
injured. On top were piled three baggage
cars, one on top of another like childs
card house after he had swept it with his
imald. Then came the six day coaches.
Iuey were telescoped as cars never were
Uelore, and three of them were pressed
JusJ into space enough for one. The
second car had mounted off its
trucks, crashed through the car ahead
~ II, crushing the wood work aside like
Under and lay there resting on the tops OF
tue seats, while every passenger in the front
Gf car was lying dead and dying underneath.
COut OF that car hut four people came alive.
n 0h top of the second car lay the third, and,
although the latter did not cover its bearer
Us completely as the one beneath its bottom
W. WAS smeared with the blood of its victims.
Inc other three cars were not so badly
crushed, but they were broken and twisted
Al Al every conceivable way, and every
crushed timber and beam represented u
crushed human frame and broken bone.
sHRrEKs OF THE PASSENGERS.
Instantly the air was filled with the cries
ot the wounded and the shrieks of those
uoout to die. The groans of men and the
screams Of women united to make an appall-
lis sound, and above all could be heard the
asonizing cries Of little children, as in some
Instances they lay pinned beside their dead
paients. There was another terrih.e danger
yet to be met. The bridge was still burning
ana the wrecked cars were lying on
ana pd around the fiercely burning cmbers;
Everywhere in the wreck were wounded
~1a unhurt men. wamen and children whose